Actions by authorities lead to increased utilities bill

It is possible to bring down the cost price of housing and communal services by 30-35% in Belarus.

“Economic instruments should be used to lower the costs. The communal services cost price can be brought down by 30-35% without any investments”, - pointed out the executive director of the Real Estate Management Association Hienadz Kalenau as he spoke at a conference in Minsk on 17 July, Narodnaja Vola reports.

He brought attention to the fact that a working group on the problematic issues in the sphere of housing and communal services, headed by the chairman of the State Control Committee Aliaksandr Jakabson, revealed a number of violations in the area, which lead to unjustified increase in cost price of housing and communal services.

“It turned out that upon the decision by local authorities housing and communal service providers get a load of unprofitable enterprises having nothing to do with the industry. This all subsequently adds up into the cost price of the housing and communal services and increased the load on the budget”, - Kalenau said.

Apart from that he turned attention to the issue that a significant part of budget resources that the state directs into the housing and communal sphere, are not used for the intended purposes.

Earlier Lukashenka had tasked the State Control Committee to establish the actual cost price of the housing and communal services. For carrying out this task a working group was created on the problematic issues in the housing and communal area, which has been working since February 2014.